Simpson To Face Hostile Questions

Deposition In Civil Trial Starts Monday, May Last Several Days

January 22, 1996|By Vincent J. Schodolski, Tribune Staff Writer.

LOS ANGELES — After fending off legal tackles for nearly two years, O.J. Simpson on Monday will be forced to face the first hostile questioning about the murders of his former wife and her friend since their deaths a year and a half ago.

Nineteen months after he last spoke on the record about the gruesome killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman--that time to two Los Angeles police detectives--Simpson will be interrogated under oath by lawyers for victims' families who have brought a civil wrongful-death suit against him.

Simpson was scheduled to be questioned in the law offices of Daniel Petrocelli, the attorney representing the Goldman family, although some reports suggested the interrogation might be moved to a secret location to avoid the certain crush of media.

Transcripts of Simpson's deposition will be made public only after questioning has been completed, and attorneys suggested that the examination would last several days.

But that is not all the talking Simpson will do this week.

On Wednesday evening, Black Entertainment Television, a Washington-based cable network, was scheduled to air an hourlong live interview with the former football star that was arranged for him by Johnnie Cochran Jr., who led the defense team in Simpson's double murder trial.

Simpson has twice promised television interviews, first to NBC and later to CNN, only to renege. Executives of BET said that while the ground rules for their questioning of Simpson would not be made final until Monday, the interview was nonetheless set for broadcast Wednesday.

Simpson, on the advice of his lawyers, backed out of those earlier interviews when network news executives refused to agree to limit the scope of their questioning.

"One of the large networks would have been preferable, of course," said one of Simpson's advisers, speaking of the agreement with BET. "But after several approaches were exhausted, this appeared to be the logical next step to be taken."

But before Simpson flirted with the networks and ultimately BET, he and his legal team tried to arrange a pay-for-view interview that could have netted millions of dollars for Simpson, who was acquitted last October after a marathon 10-month trial.

The public outcry by those who objected to seeing Simpson profit from the deaths of two people led producers of the pay-for-view interview to cancel their plans.

In the months that followed, Simpson has tried to find a venue in which he could air his version of what happened on the night of June 12, 1994, and in which he could control the manner in which the information was presented.

Late last year Simpson and his advisers concluded a deal with Tony Hoffman, a well-known producer who has made a career of producing infomercials.

Simpson reportedly was paid $3 million for his work on the video. A former Los Angeles television reporter who was hired to do the scripted interviews with Simpson that are part of the video later said he did not believe Simpson was telling the truth when he gave his account of the night of the murders.

That video, filmed in and around Simpson's Brentwood estate, has been completed and was scheduled for release Jan. 31. But again, protests by supporters of the victims' families has hampered Simpson's ability to market his creation.

When Simpson launched the first efforts to promote the video two weeks ago, many callers intentionally jammed the 800 number that was set up by promoters for the sale of the tapes, priced at $29.95.

Frustrated by the onslaught of callers who tied up lines by engaging sales personnel in lengthy conversations, promoters abandoned the toll free line and were forced to set up a local number in the San Fernando Valley to try to resurrect sales.

The video itself has now become a factor in both the civil proceeding against Simpson and, reportedly, in Wednesday's interview on BET.

At the request of lawyers for the Brown and Goldman families, Superior Court Judge Ronald Haber had ordered producer Hoffman to turn over copies of the yet-to-be-released video along with the production outtakes.

That footage was to have been made available by last Friday, but at the last moment attorneys for Simpson and Hoffman asked Haber to quash the subpoena against them regarding the tapes.

They asked Haber to allow them to postpone handing over the material until after the video was released to the general public at the end of the month.

The judge has yet to rule on that motion, and it was not clear what effect if any the failure to turn over the tapes would have on Monday's scheduled questioning of Simpson.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reported that as part of the deal Simpson's lawyers struck with BET, the cable network would broadcast the phone number through which the Simpson video can be ordered during their interview.

Simpson's deposition Monday marks a significant next step in his ongoing legal battle. The civil suit against him is scheduled to go to trial April 2 but could be delayed by further legal wrangling.